


Montana

by sprstarinfrance



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Tommy Merlyn is Alive, spoilers for the first few episodes of season 3
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-29
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:37:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2498231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sprstarinfrance/pseuds/sprstarinfrance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felicity decides it’s well past time to take a vacation, so she runs away with Tommy Merlyn. </p><p>Dead Tommy Merlyn. </p><p>Platonically.</p><p>[ON INDEFINTE HIATUS]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One.

**Author's Note:**

> The idea came from the second half of the mini-series 'Marry Me'. (Guy she's in love with's best friend whisks her off on an adventure. Guy freaks out and runs after her. Or something like that), the fact I really, really miss Tommy, and Felicity is probably beyond in need of a vacation. Set sort of towards the end of Season Three.
> 
> [NOTE: 7/30/15. I know I said I'd get back to this, but I have to be honest, it's not going to happen. I'm not sure what it is, I don't like the story anymore, I want to rewrite it, I don't know. I won't delete it, but the likelihood of an update anytime soon is super unlikely. Thanks for all the messages and comments, they've meant a lot!]

Everything sucked. 

Felicity was an optimist but everything sucked these days. Not just sucked, but really, really sucked.

Ray was a liar, and just another masked man to break her heart. Oliver, Barry…

She was so tired of all it. It was almost enough for her to miss her days as an IT girl. And that life had been boring. Boring, but stress free.

And everything was stressful lately. Her job at QC since her and Ray had broken up, and Oliver was really trying to get the company back this time…

Oliver… that was a whole other thing. 

And her night job…

With Sara’s murderer captured, Digg wasn’t around much these days, which left her alone in the lair with Oliver, Roy, Thea, and Laurel. Who were all angry and brooding all the time, or fighting each other. Not just sparing, but just full out screaming matches. 

She was beginning to question her sanity. 

Thea was beyond pissed at Oliver. Oliver was worried about Thea. Thea still resented Roy. Roy was taking that out on everyone else. Oliver was annoyed at Laurel’s new night gig as the Black Canary. Laurel didn’t think she was doing anything wrong. 

She wasn’t sure if it was good thing or a bad thing if they mostly forgot about her. It wasn’t like they had much crime-fighting going on these days, which was probably for the best because none of them were really working well as a team these days. 

She needed a drink… no she needed a drink on a remote beach with a smutty novel on her tablet, and for everyone to just shut the hell up. 

\---

There was another assassin (he liked to call himself The Judge, seriously, he called himself The Judge) in town taking out shady one percenters. 

Felicity had spent the night trying to track him down, and everything was quiet. Digg hadn’t been in all week. Oliver had some gala to attend for QC and Laurel had decided to tag along. Why she needed to be there, Felicity still didn’t understand but Oliver hadn’t said anything, so why should she? Thea. She had no idea where Thea was. And Roy was training behind her. 

She had been playing Candy Crush on her phone listening to Roy beat the shit out of a training dummy behind her, when her computer dinged.

It had traced the targets, Josh Walder, the CEO of Starling City’s largest construction company, to a club not to far from Verdant. Walder had only been out a few hours, and already he was racking up a few high bar tabs all over the city. 

It was The Judge’s M.O. Drunk rich person brutally strangled in alley outside of club. Drunk rich person later revealed to be a horribly corrupted person. Oliver had been able to stop him last time, but it seemed like Walder was too stupid to stay in for the night. 

She called Oliver. He didn’t answer. So she tired Laurel. She didn’t answer either. She tried them a few more times. Felicity could tell Roy, but he was a little out of control these days. Last week he had almost ended up in the hospital. Thea wasn’t even an option. Her idea of vengeance landed heavily on the bloody side. 

Felicity was on her own. 

\--

She told Roy she was going to grab some dinner, throwing her tablet, and a tracking device in her purse. He only grunted in response, clearly not even listening to her. 

It only took a few minutes to find the place, a few more to consider just going back to the Foundry. This place reminded her the bars her mother used to work at before she got the cocktail waitress gig. It mostly full of Glade locals, girls stumbling out of the grime covered walls and there was… yep, a couple having sex, right next to the entrance. 

It was easy to find Walder, and even easier to distract him and attach the tracking device to his shirt. It wasn’t easy however, to detach him from her. 

She had to shove an elbow to the ribs of a few other guys and barely managed to get out of the club to call Lance, and give him the tracking information on Walder just in case she lost him. (And Oliver again). She promised him the Arrow was trailing him, but Lance said he was sending a car to patrol the area. 

Felicity followed Walder around for the next few hours. And by the end of it she debated killing him herself. She knew he was married, and had a few kids, but here he was following a prostitute into an alley. 

‘An alley really? Gross,’ She muttered, ‘Not that a bathroom here is really much better…’

And then the Judge attacked. 

She called Oliver. Voice mail again. 

Lance answered and the promised car was on the way.

Felicity decided it was probably time to get out of here. Instead someone hit her over the head, and everything went black.

 

\--

She woke up to a hand covering her mouth and a familiar voice in her ear. “I’m going to let you go, but you have to be calm. You can’t freak out.”

Great. She had gotten herself in trouble again. Felicity knew she was going to hear it when Oliver finally came to get her. She’d probably get one from Diggle as well. Roy would probably throw in a punch himself. And she’d yell back, even if she was clearly wrong going without backup, but he wasn’t answering, and someone was going to die…

Yeah! More fighting and shouting…

He let his hand go. 

“You do this a lot?”

“Huh?” She whipped around to find a man in a familiar black suit and mask. Felicity didn’t have to ask to know who he was. A league assassin. The Judge, possibly?

“Getting into trouble… you just muttered….”

“I said that out aloud didn’t I?”

He just laughed, “Yes. And totally not The Judge, but he gave you a pretty nice bump on the back of the head, you’ve been out for hours.”

It was then she realized she wasn’t in that alley anymore… she was in a hotel room? “Whoa, buddy. This, This is not going to happen.”

“What’s not happening?”

“I’m grateful really … actually I’m not sure if I’m grateful, where am I?”

“A motel outside of the Montana border.”

She snorted, there was no way they were in Montana. Montana was at least a few days away from Starling City. Why would an assassin kidnap her and take her to Montana? Montana?

“I didn’t kidnap you. The Judge saw your face, and he saw mine. I just thought it would be best to lay low for a few days, until he’s dealt with. And I heard there was huge country fair here. Could be fun.”

She had to get out of here, but there was no way she’d be able to escape a league assassin, John had taught her to defend herself, but this wasn’t something she could do. Where was her phone? Maybe she could send them a cryptic text…

“You are completely free to leave but we are miles from civilization. And I think there are bears.”

She couldn’t see behind his mask, but she had met enough cocky men in her life to know he was smug. 

“What do you want from me?” She demanded beginning to see how this weird was. He was acting very nonchalant and jokey. She had met Nyssa and her friends. Not jokey in the slightest. And there was that gut feeling like she was missing something huge, maybe why his voice sounded familiar… Montana. “And why Montana? Montana doesn’t seem like a very assassin-ly place. Why are you…”

“Look, I have business in Starling City, so I’ve seen you around. I know you work for the Arrow, and I know how he can be. Sometime he gets so wrapped up in what’s going on in his head… gets really self-centered without realizing it… and he forgets the important things, like you. That’s got to be hard…”

“Okay, so this is some sort of Arrow revenge thing…”

“No! I have no ‘beef’, do people still say that? I’m beyond out of touch these days. And I don’t even have the been on a deserted island for five years excuse….”

“Wait, you’ve seen me around? Are you stalking me? Because I’ve had more then enough of creepy guys…”

“I’m not stalking you… I’m stalking Oliver Queen. Wow, never thought I’d see the day when those words came out my mouth.”

Panic rises in her chest, and all she can see is red. She forgot he was an assassin, and shoved him hard, “I don’t care who you are, but if you even try to kill him. I will hunt you down…”

“Woah!” He backed up chuckling. “You’ve got the wrong idea. I have no intention of killing him. I’m just worried about him.” He must take her weird look as a sign to continue and sighed, “I’m making this worse. I’m going to take off my mask. Try not to scream. I sort of blew my eardrums out a few weeks ago.”

No.

It can’t be.


	2. two.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm a ghost. I have all the time in the world."

Tommy.

Tommy Merlyn.

Tommy.

Merlyn.

She had heard him die. She had got to his funeral. She had watched Oliver grieve for months. She watched Laurel spin out of control.

He was alive.

No. This wasn’t possible.

But it was him. She knew it was him, which was crazy because she didn’t even know Tommy. They had only really talked twice, or rather spoken words around each other. Once when Oliver introduced them. The second time was just before he quit the club, and he had gone off on some half drunk tangent about Oliver being the Arrow, how this would just make Laurel love him more, his father being the worlds biggest douche, and how pissed off he was with everything. And then he wasn’t really talking to her, just talking at her.

But he died.

Like really died. Not only impaled but a building fell on him. She was sure not even Slade could’ve escape that kind of death.

“It’s the goatee, right?” He joked as she gaped at him. “I realize I’m not a goatee guy. I knew I should have just grown the full beard, but I’ve been in South America a lot these days. I fit in better.”

“Yeah,” She muttered back for a lack of anything else to say, “It’s pretty awful.”

“You’re taking this really well. Kind of too well.”

Felicity swallowed because she actually wasn’t but she was surprisingly calm, “I’ve been in Oliver’s life enough to know people have a way… of not dying. Slade Wilson, Isabel Bitchwitch, your father obvs, Sara Lance died three times… once when Oliver though she died on the yacht, the second on a freighter ship … the last…unfortunately the last time was finial, but you know that already…”

“Sara didn’t die on the yacht?” Tommy seemed shocked before he snorted, ”Why am I surprised? Wait, why do you think I’d know that?”

“The League? You must have run into her at least once.” He still shrugged, “She was with Nyssa. The Canary?”

Felicity noticed he recognized the Canary.

“Sara, Laurel’s little sister Sara, the Canary? I’ve heard it all. And I thought I’ve heard it all over the last three years…”

The question came out of Felicity’s mouth before she had a chance to stop it “How are you here? You were…” She made a gesture that she thought looked like being impaled and buried in earthquake, but he only laughed. “It’s not possible. You standing here… not possible.”

“Yeah,” He sighed sitting down on the bed, “I don’t really know that myself. But Ra’s al Ghul doesn’t really appreciate Q and A’s. All I know, I woke up, alive, and scar-less. And a prisoner… sort of.”

She sat down next to him, the curious side of herself begging him to tell her everything, despite knowing fully well she should be calling Oliver. Definitely should be calling Oliver… but her phone was still missing. Yep, that was her excuse. No phone.

“I was forced into that world. I tried to escape, or fight back. I even tried to kill myself a few times, only to wake back up alive again. He didn’t explain himself for a year.” Tommy laughed dryly; “I have like a nine pack and some sweet ninja moves now, so that’s an upside.”

“What did he want? I mean no one would go though all that effort to keep you alive if they clearly didn’t need you for something.”

“My father. He wanted me to kill my dad. I guess my dad was such a horrible person people like Ra’s al Ghul don’t even want him in their club. And I guess me killing him would be the icing on his revenge cake. Completely and totally killing him in more then one way.”

Oliver had found Malcolm’s body weeks ago with an arrow though the heart, and had personally watched him burn. They wanted to be sure he was gone for good. Thea hadn’t taken it well at all, and it only made things between the siblings worse. Felicity had been looking into it, but the list of people who would want Malcolm dead was long, hundreds of people long, and she honestly didn’t care, so she gave up.

“It was you. You killed him.”

Tommy shook his head breathing deeply, “No, but I might have. I stood over him full of rage and desperation, and I wanted too. After everything I said to Oliver about being a murder. Hypocrite? Your name is Tommy Merlyn.”

“But you didn’t. You didn’t kill him.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. I’ve done things. Things I never thought I’d do. Things I will never forgive myself for. I wonder if this is how Oliver felt after the island. Did he ever tell you about it?”

“A bit, yeah.”

“That’s good.”

“You can tell me about your island… if you want. I mean, you are right now, but you totally don’t have too.”

Tommy smiled back at her, “Thanks. I mean it; I haven’t had anyone I could talk to in years. I mean really talk to.

He didn’t say anything else, and eventually the silence drifted between them, until he spoke up again.

“Your miserable.”

“What?”

“Your miserable. I said I’ve been following Oliver, but I’ve seen you. I remember that rambling bright blond that Oliver introduced me to, who listened when I was a complete ass that night before I quit my life and joined my Dad at Merlyn Global. The woman in front of me isn’t the same person. “

“I’m fine.” Fine, she was fine. Work was fine. Everything with her mom was fine. The team was fine. Everything with Oliver was definitely fine.

“And I’m not emotional and physically scared beyond belief. Come on.” Tommy nudged her shoulder with an honest smile on his face, and for the first time in awhile she felt like she had someone to talk to. “I’m a ghost I have all the time in the world, spill it.”

“Jerry quit!” Felicity doesn’t know why Jerry’s resignation is the first thing she thinks about, but before she knew it everything was coming out in one long ramble.

“And I know his wife got a job in Toronto, and he had to leave, but I’m really sad. I like Jerry. He brought me coffee, and always forgot to schedule meetings with people he knew I disliked, and smiled when I said something inappropriate, and not that ‘you’re my boss and you say weird things but I have to be polite’ way, but genuinely smiled at me. We had just started developing our own secret sign language. Rose… she’s my new EA, and she’s so formal, and serious, and she remember every single lunch I’m supposed to have with stuffy people I don’t like.” She pouted causing Tommy to snort. “I want him back.”

“My EA at Merlyn Global hated me… I’m thinking I probably slept with her and forgot.”

“You don’t win the EA off. You probably asked for whatever she dished out. You were a huge jerk,” She poked him in the shoulder.“ And I would have never got you coffee. But I don’t get anyone coffee, so that’s not really revenant. Well, I got Oliver coffee, once. Just once.”

Tommy grinned back at her, “I’m sorry I didn’t know you before. We would have been good friends. I know that. We could have tortured Oliver together. You would have told me to get my head out of my ass.”

She shrugged back smirking, “Probably. Telling broody millionaires that they are being asses is one of my many talents. Or it used be. He doesn’t listen to me anymore.”

“I’m sure that not true.”

“If he had, this year would have gotten much differently. Preferably with less clothes.”

“Woah. I think we just found the line in our newfound friendship.”

She tried to laugh back, but instead found herself just feeling more sad, “Do we hug now? Because I really need a hug.” He didn’t even hesitate, and she relaxed into it.

“I have an idea,” Tommy muttered into her hair. “That fair just over the border. We should go. No reason to not have fun while hiding from deadly assassins.”

She knew should say no. She should find her phone. She should call Oliver; tell him Tommy’s alive and go back to Starling City. But she’s just so tired, and Oliver is the last person she wants to see or talk too. And the thought about going back to Starling City makes her feel ill. She needs this. She needs a break from her life.

“Okay,” Felicity muttered back pulling herself out of his embrace.

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll run away with you to Montana. Platonically! I will platonically run away with you, but we need to find a computer. I need to send some emails.”

\--

Dig-

You might (or might not) have noticed I’m missing.

I promise I’m safe. I’d tell you this myself, but I’ve misplaced all my electronics. I know, strange…

Also, I’m miserable.

I’ve been miserable for a while now, and what’s even worse, is that someone had to point it out to me. I’m so miserable I didn’t even know I was miserable.

I think I need to regroup… or just get really drunk, and torture people with my horrible karaoke skills. I’m really, really bad, like once when I was at MIT I once accidentally punched this guy….

Right, off topic.

But I’m good. Just need to breathe.

I’ll be back soon and in once piece, I promise.

-Felicity

P.S. Give the Digglett a kiss from me. I miss her tiny little chubby cheeks.

\---

Mr. Palmer,

I am ill.

Very ill.

I am so ill that I will not be at work for a few days… a week tops. Possibly two, but that’s the worst-case scenario.

Thank you for your understanding,

Felicity Smoak

P.S. Please don’t touch my computers, unless you want to be redirected to Twilight fan videos anytime you go on the Internet.

And yes, I will know, so don't even think about it.


	3. three.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Sorry about the radio on the rental. Didn’t have time to make a ‘convinced the girl my best friend is in love with to run away with me ‘road trip mix.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a Oliver chapter (most likely a long one at the end)... eventually. But I'm just letting him stew for awhile.

Clearly the bump on her head had also messed with her common sense, because here she was, with an apparently not dead Tommy Merlyn, on vacation. In Montana. Well, it was less of a vacation, and more like strategically planned getaway because they had a dangerous assassin looking for them, but he was treating this like a vacation, so she had decided she was too. 

“Sorry about the radio on the rental. Didn’t have time to make a ‘convinced the girl my best friend is in love with to run away with me ‘road trip mix.”

She glared at him, and he laughed as he tapped the steering wheel, “I told you I’ve been playing attention. I mean, I saw a bit of it before I ‘died’ but… I mean there was a reason that Cupid psychopath went after you right? I believe the term ‘heart eyes’ was created just for you two….”

“Tommy, shut up.”

Although he did, he didn’t wipe the sheepish smile off his face. “So Felicity Smoak, what is your story? Other then being masked men catnip.”

“You mean other then my non-existent love life, and crappy job? Not much. Single parent home, slightly absentee mother, childhood spent in Sin City, got the hell of dodge and went to MIT, eventually moved to Starling. You know the rest?”

“I feel like that was all a gross under exaggeration. Are you or are you not, responsible for stopping most of the criminal element of Starling City?”

“That wasn’t…”

“That idiot would have killed himself if it wasn’t….”

“Tommy…”

“Hmmm?” He muttered suddenly very interested in the road.

“I know what your doing.” 

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Can we not talk about….” She trailed off, “You. Say thing about you.”

“Irresponsible ass Tommy or trained assassin Tommy? Trust me you don’t want to hear about either,” He sighed as she stared in his direction, and as if sensing her desire to say something anything finally spoke, “I spent a year in Nanda Parbat. Then I’ve spent the past nine months spilt between Brazil and stalking my father’s movements. He’s gone now, and I’m free. I’m free for the first time in my life, and I have no idea what to do with it. So I was creeping around Starling City, but my life isn’t there anymore. I can’t go back. I’m in the midst of an existential crisis. Which is probably ironic because my very existence could be questioned.” 

“Are you not going to tell Laurel…Oliver… that you’re alive? You weren’t there last year. They fell apart. Oliver still thinks you died hating him, and Laurel blamed herself for your death. Drove her to addiction. Not that it’s your fault she realized too late how much she cared about you. But you can’t just lurk in the shadows watching your friends like a creepy guardian angel…I’m going to have to tell him….when I get back to Starling City… I can’t lie to him about this. I won’t.”  
“And I don’t expect you to. I just… “ Tommy clenched the wheel. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know anything anymore. What are dead millionaires recently released from the League of Assassins supposed to do with their lives?”

\--

After they pulled into Oak Mills, Montana, the first stop was to the public library, because according to the man at the diner it was the only place for miles where she would find a computer that actually worked. 

Although…Felicity would never in a million years call THAT a computer.

“Wow, you an incredible tech snob,” Tommy had teased, as she started muttering.

“Tommy, you don’t understand. This… This is not a computer. This is a dinosaur. Windows 98. 98!”

He just shrugged and she wanted to hit him, because she was in physical pain right now. This actually hurt. It was worst then Oliver’s original set up in the lair, and she thought that was bad. 

“They stopped running support on this operating system like a decade ago. And it’s dial up. Dial Up. Two percent of users in America still use Dial up and we’ve managed to find one of them. And the tower, don’t get me started on how much … ”

“Can you use it?”

“What? yeah, that’s not the problem.”

“And the problem is?”

“I don’t want too.” 

He snorted loud enough to earn a glare from lady across the room. He just winked back, causing Felicity to roll her eyes. 

It took some time (mostly because the system ran like a old person asleep) but she managed to send out an email to Digg, and Ray, knowing they would both eventually notice she was missing. Digg, because she texted him everyday bugging him for baby pictures, and Ray, because, well, she worked for Ray. She masked her IP, just in case. The in case being that most of the men in her life were noisy asses she needed to get away from. Minus of course, Digg, and Roy… most of the time. Although she knew Oliver probably wouldn’t notice she was missing until he tried bark orders at her and she wasn’t there to listen, because that’s basically how their relationship worked these days. Apparently the only way to get his attention these days was to secretly become a vigilante, and Felicity had no intention of doing that, ever. 

Before she had known it, though, she started fiddling with the system on computer. It was one thing for this to be not to be updated, but she could fix it. Felicity had almost forgot where she was, and that Tommy was still in the armchair next to her. 

“Okay, even I know it shouldn’t take someone… two and half hours to send an email?”

“Uhhh…”

“Are you trying to fix their computer?”

“No!”

“Have you ever thought maybe they like their computers old and outdated?”

“Who actually likes…”

Then he grabbed her arm and dragged her away. “Lets go. We aren’t here to fix computers.”

“Tommy, I have to…”

“Nope.”

“I hate you.”

“You wouldn’t be the first girl to say that,” He grinned back despite her pouting. “I’ll buy you some shoes. You like shoes right? A nice pair of cowboy boots.”

“Stop bribing me with shoes… because it’s working. God, why do I like shoes so much?”

\--

Unfortunately the only real retail store in the area was a thrift shop. 

“And all the memories of back to school shopping coming flooding back,” She muttered, as Tommy glanced back at her, “Poor kid. We can’t all shop at Bergdorfs. It’s probably why the minute I could afford nice things, I bought a lot of them.”

“One of the things about dying. Fashion falls in the wayside, I bought these boots off of a street vendor in Singapore for like eight dollars. I still have a hard time understanding how I once spent 50 grand on a silk scarf. That I only wore it once,” He pulled a ugly orange scarf a table and wrapped it around himself, “I like this one. Look it’s only a dollar! Probably a bit more reasonable. “

“No. Just no. But I have to find something else to wear. Some people could pull off the I just spent the night on the run look, but I don’t think I am one of them.” 

“You always looking Smoaking.” Tommy grinned, “Bet you’ve never heard that one before.”

“Nope,” She deadpanned, “Has anyone told you that you’re not nearly as funny as you think you are?”

“I’m always just as funny as I think I am.” 

She managed to find a few dresses that didn’t look like they came straight out of a nineties film. Not really her style, but she was sort of on the run. She could stand to be someone else for a few days. Tommy just grabbed things off the rack, and the pair of cowboy boots he promised. 

And Felicity realized she didn’t have her purse, which she forgot about that along with her senses, and her phone, the minute she found out Tommy was alive again. 

“It’s the car. I don’t know about your phone. You didn’t have it with you when I found you. But I’m getting this.”

“Tommy.”

“You can accept twenty-five dollars. It’s the least I can do after dragging you across several state lines without your permission.” 

“I’m alive, so I’m not really pissed about it. I’m still a disorientated with the whole… you not being dead thing and waking up not in Starling City thing, but I’m not mad you saved me from The Judge. Actually I’m strangely grateful, you dragged me away. I would have never been able to force myself to leave even if I was slowly dying inside. Maybe it should have been under different…”

“It’s eleven in the morning, and there is a huge country fair. Come on, I’ll buy you a funnel cake.”

“Maybe I’ll buy you a funnel cake,” She countered causing Tommy to burst out in laughter, “That wasn’t supposed to sound dirty. It really wasn’t.”

“If you want this Lis, you only have to ask.”

“Shut up Tommy,” She grumbled trying to whack him the shoulder, but he dodged her.

“Ninja skills remember?”

“But just for clarification, pants will be kept on. I’m not going to into get into a love triangle… or square. If we were to hook up, what shape would that even be? I mean there is Laurel and…”

“I was fully planning on keeping my pants on, I promise. And I’m not that much of a dick. I’ll just wait till Oliver gets stranded on another island for five years. Then all bets are off.” He ignored her scoff, “But for now, funnel cake.”

“Funnel cake.”


End file.
